Perfect Vacation Daydreams May Backfire

For some, the dream summer vacation is a product of years of planning and anticipation. Now, a new study suggests that when we fantasize about such trips we tend to ignore negative possibilities, compromising our decision-making down the line.

“We were interested in the effects of positive fantasies — what happens when people imagine an idealized, best-case-scenario version of the future, compared to when they imagine a less idealized version,” said researcher Heather Kappes.

Kappes’ study is published online in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

“This is one of the first papers to examine selective information acquisition at this early stage, before people are seriously considering a possibility.”

The study investigated the potential consequences of a scenario like this: You would like to take a trip to Australia this year but think you are very unlikely to do so – you have no more vacation time left, cannot afford it, or would rather save up for a new car.

But you still daydream about how nice it would be to see the Australian Outback and lie on the white sand beaches, perhaps without thinking about the long plane ride there or the poisonous animals. Those daydreams, Kappes says, have powerful effects.

To test those effects, Kappes and co-author Gabriele Oettingen, Ph.D., asked people to imagine a particular future about one of three topics: wearing glamorous high-heeled shoes, making money in the stock market, or taking a vacation.

To induce positive fantasies for each topic, the study participants were prompted to think about how great it would be to do each activity.

In the control condition, participants also imagined experiencing the future, but were prompted to think about the negatives as well, with questions like “Would it really be so great?”

In both conditions, participants wrote down what they were thinking, for the researchers to ensure they were engaged in the imagery.

Researchers then offered the participants a choice of different types of information. For example, participants could browse a website describing the positive and negative health consequences of wearing high heels, and researchers noted how much more time they spent reading about positive versus negative consequences.

Or, they could choose which of five (fictitious) tripadvisor.com reviews they wanted to read, and researchers recorded whether they chose one that was more pro-trip (i.e., five stars) or con-trip (i.e., one star).

Kappes’ team found that for each topic, imagining the idealized version made people prefer to learn about the pros rather than the cons of the future event. “These effects are pronounced when people are not seriously considering pursuing a given future,” Kappes says.

Researchers believe the finding have important implications.

“When people are seriously considering implementing a decision like taking a trip, they often engage in careful deliberations about the pros versus cons,” Kappes said.

“Our work suggests that before getting to this point, positive fantasies might lead people to acquire biased information – to learn more about the pros rather than the cons. Thus, even if people deliberate very carefully on the information they’ve acquired, they could still make poor decisions.”

People need to be aware of these effects to ensure that they acquire balanced information before it is time to make a decision, she says.

Researchers also belief the study shows that positive mental imagery may not always result in a beneficial outcome.

“Although there are benefits to imagining a positive future, there are also drawbacks, and it’s important to recognize them in order to most effectively pursue our goals.”

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Rick Nauert PhD

Dr. Rick Nauert has over 25 years experience in clinical, administrative and academic healthcare. He is currently an associate professor for Rocky Mountain University of Health Professionals doctoral program in health promotion and wellness. Dr. Nauert began his career as a clinical physical therapist and served as a regional manager for a publicly traded multidisciplinary rehabilitation agency for 12 years. He has masters degrees in health-fitness management and healthcare administration and a doctoral degree from The University of Texas at Austin focused on health care informatics, health administration, health education and health policy. His research efforts included the area of telehealth with a specialty in disease management.